


And in the Beginning

by Rinkafic



Series: Keri 'verse [5]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Stargate Atlantis AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-29
Updated: 2012-06-29
Packaged: 2017-11-08 20:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/447089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinkafic/pseuds/Rinkafic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All great friendships have to start somewhere.  Sometimes the best start in times of adversity and sadness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And in the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Caitriona_3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caitriona_3/gifts).



Sheppard stood at the railing overlooking the Gate Room and gave a sigh of discontent as he watched the preparations going on below. His knuckles whitened a bit, he was gripping the bar so tightly. AG-1 and AG-2 were gathered there, waiting for the arrival of their last member. Ford adjusted the straps on Doctor McKay’s tac vest and gave a pat as he approved of the fit. John wanted to go. But he wasn’t allowed. Keri were not allowed to serve on Gate Teams, especially not ‘mission essential’ ATA gene possessing keri. McKay, a bonded panor, was only being allowed to go because as head of the science department, he was most qualified to make the call about the suitability of their proposed alpha site. John rested his arms on the rail and watched Commodore Sumner frown at the tardy young seal that ran up to join them before turning to signal to Grodin to let her spin.

“I’m sorry John. I know you’d rather be out there.” Elizabeth Weir softly came up beside him and touched his shoulder. “It isn’t much of an alternative, but could you take some of the scientists over to the continent? They want to explore a little.”

She was making the offering because she knew he loved to fly and loved the little ships he had nicknamed puddlejumpers. He smiled at the effort to cheer him up and then nodded. “Sure, Elizabeth. I can do that.”

~*~

 

“Sub Commander Sheppard, come in. Sub Commander Sheppard, this is Atlantis Control, please respond.” Chuck the technician’s voice roused John from his light slumber in the pilot’s seat of the jumper. The Expedition’s head botanist, David Parrish, was having convulsions of joy over the shrubbery outside, but Sheppard had been bored and went to catch a nap. 

“This is Sheppard, go ahead.”

“Sir, you’ll need to return to Atlantis, we have a situation. The away team is in trouble.”

Sheppard brought up the scanner to locate the science team, luckily, they had not wandered far. “Ten minutes, let me gather the civilians.”

Weir was pacing on the flyway when Sheppard came down the stairs from the jumper bay. She looked up with relief and met him halfway to the Control Room, walking back with him. “AG-2 has reported that the Athosian settlement they were visiting was attacked by some creatures called Wraith. AG-1 and a large number of the natives were taken by ships through the Gate.”

“Taken? Taken where?”

“We don’t know yet. We’re waiting for a full report when AG-2 gets here. Sergeant Sills called in the report and then went back for the rest of his team, he’s on foot, their jumper pilot, Lieutenant Markham, was hurt.”

“Where’s Major Lorne?” Sheppard asked, trying to figure out what their plan of response should be.

“Sills said he was severely injured in the attack, unconscious.” She chewed her lip and looked at him nervously. Evan Lorne was their mutual friend, they had both served with him for a number of years on various postings.

A cold feeling of dread passed over John. With Commodore Sumner, Sub Commander Ford and now Major Lorne all down or missing, that left him as ranking SGO officer, and the only person on the base with experience flying the puddlejumpers. Him, a keri with no real field experience. They were so screwed.

~*~

 

“We’re going to die.” Rodney McKay whined as he stared through the disgusting quasi-living bars of the cell the Wraith had shoved him into. He and half a dozen Athosians, including their leaders, Teyla and Halling, had been left here while Sumner had been taken away by the long haired pale-skinned freaks that had taken them captive. 

Halling came up beside him, inclined his head in agreement and said, “The Wraith shall indeed feed upon us. Join us in a preparatory prayer to the Ancestors, Doctor McKay? Make your peace with them?”

“No, I don’t think so, thanks, not my thing. You go on though, I’ll just stand over here, and avoid touching anything.” Rodney shivered with disgust as he eyed the tissue of the walls. “Really, really, not touching anything.”

A noise drew Rodney’s attention and he moved to the door, craning his neck and standing on his toes to avoid touching the thing while attempting to see out into the corridor. 

“Step back, McKay.” 

McKay let out a startled squeak of surprise as John Sheppard suddenly appeared right in front of his face, coming along the wall where Rodney had not been able to see him, in his blind spot. 

“Shhhh!” Sheppard made a cutting motion with his hand and peered through the bars, counting noses. “Step back.” He withdrew a sharp knife from the sheath at his back and began cutting at the bars. He tilted his head in the direction he had come from. “Bates is releasing Ford and a bunch of Athosians down the hall that way. Where’s Sumner?” He crouched, cutting at the thinnest bars at the bottom first.

Following Sheppard down, keeping their faces even as he leaned to cut the lower bars, McKay whispered, “They took him, the guys that grabbed us, the Wraith. What are you doing here, Sheppard? Where’s that Major, the paper jockey, or one of the Lieutenants, you know, one of the real military guys with experience at this?”

“I’m a real military guy, McKay.” Sheppard said impatiently. “Lorne’s hurt. I’m it. So shut up and stop distracting me.”

“I’m not distracting you; you’re cutting in a methodical fashion, there is nothing for you to concentrate on. You know what I meant, you’re…” McKay gestured up and down to take in Sheppard’s midsection. 

In response, Sheppard stopped cutting and pointed at McKay’s noise with the knife. He hissed in a warning tone the brooked no argument, “Not another word.”

McKay crossed his arms and sighed, tapping his foot in his impatience to be outside of the cell. “Fine.”

“Doctor McKay?” Teyla came to his elbow and poked her head through the bars. McKay winced at the thought of that stuff touching his bare skin as it was touching the Athosian woman’s. “I assume this is one of your people?”

“This is Sub Commander Sheppard, he’s here to rescue us. If he cuts faster. I assume you came in a ship, of course you did, that’s why it’s you here instead of Stackhouse, he can’t fly the puddlejumpers. That’s a stupid name, by the way, it should be Gateship.” 

Sheppard ignored McKay. His complaining was actually kind of soothing, it felt almost normal, like the few times he’d had cause to be in the labs while the scientist worked. “Do you have word of the village? Are my people all right? Teyla knelt and began to tug at the bars John had cut partially through, speeding his progress. 

“There are four more in another cell down that way, with the six here, that leaves two unaccounted for, according to a boy named Jinto that we talked to. The rest of your villagers are safe at our base.” John grunted and leaned down on a particularly thick bar, some were thicker than others, as big around as his wrist.

“Praise the Ancestors, my Jinto lives!” Halling exclaimed. John and Rodney both hushed him, strenuously.

Sergeant Bates arrived, a string of frightened Athosians tagging along behind him. The tardy naval seal from AG-1, Sheppard couldn’t remember his name, brought up the rear. “Where’s Ford?” Sheppard asked, looking around expecting to see Sumner’s XO. 

“Appropriated my rifle and took off to find Sumner. Young hothead.” He helped Sheppard cut the rest of the bars free and they opened the door. 

“Let’s go. We’ll get you all to the jumper,” Sheppard pointed down the corridor.

Bates grabbed his arm and demanded of John, “What about Sumner? We came for Sumner.”

Sheppard shook off his grip and gave the Sergeant a dark look. “We’ll secure these people first. In case you’ve forgotten, McKay is mission essential. Move your ass, Sergeant, don’t make me tell you again.”

They returned to the puddlejumper, which Sheppard had cloaked by accident by wishing fervently that the thing was invisible when he parked it. After convincing Weir that Beckett could handle the chair and ‘light switch’ duty, John and Bates had come alone, leaving Lieutenant Stackhouse behind as the ranking military officer until Major Lorne recuperated, should anything happen to their little rescue party. 

Sheppard activated the overhead displays and grumbled, “Too bad there isn’t a mobile version of this thing, so I could track…” A small device suddenly popped up from a compartment beside the pilot’s seat. John grinned with delight and plucked it out, only to have it seized from his hands by McKay.

“How do you do that? I swear this Ancient stuff has the hots for you. Ask it for a large coffee, two sugars, no milk.” He bent his head over the device and began to poke at it. “Life signs detector.” He prodded at it for a minute more and then said, “I’ve isolated the human life signs. You have your tracking device, Sub Commander.”

John leaned over and snatched it back from McKay, staring at it as he tried to decipher how to read it. He looked up at McKay as a thought occurred to him. “Can you put the Wraith signs back?”

“Well yeah, but why?” 

“So I could avoid them by looking at it.” He handed the detector back to McKay. “Do you think we could do enough damage to this ship to really break it with some C-4?”

McKay opened his mouth to protest that that was a stupid idea, but then turned thoughtful as he made the adjustments to the life signs tracker and passed it back to Sheppard. “Yeah, if it was in the right place, sure, I guess so.”

John pointed to a rough scan of the hive ship they were in on the overhead display. “Where? Show me.” With a bit of grousing, McKay reluctantly pointed to a spot on the level below them, where power seemed to be collecting.

“Bates, I’m going to try to blow this thing. Sergeant… what is your name?” John demanded of the seal. 

“Conroy, Sir.”

“Conroy here is ATA positive, right?” Sheppard looked to the young man for confirmation then continued when he nodded. “Conroy, all you have to do is think about it and you can fly this ship if you have to. If I’m not back in half an hour, you leave, is that understood? The timer is going to be set for half an hour from now.” Committing the map on the overhead to memory, he moved to the rear hatch of the puddlejumper, squeezing his way past the huddled Athosians. 

“Give me that thing.” McKay demanded as he stepped out behind Sheppard and batted him on the shoulder. “You’re a dumbass. This is a stupid plan.” He grabbed the life signs detector.

Sheppard spun and said, “McKay, if this ship is not destroyed, they will track the puddlejumper back to Atlantis. Then they will attack it. I cannot let that happen.”

“I’m coming with you, I’ll plant the C-4.”

Teyla walked down the ramp to join them. “I shall come as well, to watch your backs, you have saved my people, it is the very least that I can do to repay you.”

John rolled his eyes and then conceded, it was only one level down, and McKay would know better how to figure out where to place the explosive for maximum efficiency. And another set of eyes at their back wouldn’t hurt. He would not take the remaining SGO personnel; they were needed here, in case of emergency. “Come on" Sheppard waved to his impromptu team.” 

They crept along the corridors, McKay silently pointing the way as he read the life signs detector, until they got to the room where the power lines met. There were only two Wraith on guard. And Sheppard learned that Wraith died quite easily when you put a bullet from a Glock through their brains. He and Teyla dragged the bodies aside and Teyla watched the door while Sheppard followed Rodney around the room, placing the explosives and charges where he was told to.

“C’mon McKay.” Sheppard urged when the scientist stopped to ponder a particular display too long. “Pick the last one and let’s move.”

“Coming, coming.” He pointed and they were soon making their way back to the compartment where the puddlejumper was located. As they came around a corner, they ran into Sub Commander Ford, looking ashen and panicked. 

He grabbed onto Sheppard’s arm and said in a rush, “What the hell?!? C’mon, c’mon we have to move, they’re coming, they’re all coming. Gotta run, gotta go.” He looked around with terror in his eyes, pulling on Sheppard’s arm. 

“The Wraith? What do you mean all coming?” Sheppard asked, looking to McKay and tossing his nose towards the life signs detector. McKay looked at it, shook it, read it again, and then shrugged and lifted his hands in a gesture that clearly meant, ‘I don’t know and he’s a little crazy.’

“I shot the queen, I killed her, I didn’t know they were all connected, I didn’t know they were bonded. She said they all woke up, before she died, she said they all woke up. She laughed at me, Sheppard.” When Sheppard didn’t move fast enough, Ford dropped his arm and jogged off down the corridor, luckily in the direction they were going anyway so they didn’t have to chase him to correct his course.

“This is most disturbing.” Teyla whispered. “All the Wraith awake? All coming at once? They will be hungry, they will need to feed.” Her eyes were wide and fearful as she walked beside Rodney, keeping a lookout for anything approaching from the sides.

McKay held up the sensor as he followed Sheppard, checked for any Wraith nearby, and then changed the life signs away from Wraith to read for humans again. He tapped Sheppard on the shoulder and held the display up for him to see. Blinking at it, Sheppard frowned and then nodded; understanding without being told what McKay had been showing him. The only life signs other than the cluster representing the Athosians and the two SGO men in the jumper were theirs and Ford’s. Sumner was dead.

“Thanks, McKay,” Sheppard said quietly, met his eyes and then looked back towards the corridor and gave a whistle to signal to Ford that he was going the wrong way. The young man looked at him sheepishly and turned to head in the direction Sheppard had jerked his thumb in.

Two Wraith suddenly dropped down through a hole in the ceiling they had not seen. One of them ran at Ford, the other landing by Rodney and reaching his hands out to grab him. With a yowl of outrage, Sheppard leapt forward and bashed into the Wraith with his shoulder. He brought his Glock around to bear and fired three shots into the Wraith’s head. It slid to the floor, dead.

“Sheppard!” McKay pointed to the other Wraith, holding Ford by the neck with one hand while held the other pressed to his chest. The years were draining from Ford, he was aging before their eyes, his life being sucked away. Sheppard fired one shot, but his clip was empty, he quickly reloaded and fired four more into the creature’s head, but even in that short time, the damage done was critical, irreparable. Sub Commander Ford fell to the floor; they heard his now brittle bones breaking on impact with the hard surface. 

“Oh, by the Ancestors.” Teyla covered her mouth in horror, with one hand, gagging as McKay ran forward.

Sheppard handed her his Glock, wrapping her hand around the grip. “Watch our backs. Point it and pull the trigger. Pull this.” He moved her finger onto the trigger and aimed her hand away down the corridor behind them. At least the noise of the gun going off would warn them, even if she didn’t actually hit anything. As gently as he could, Sheppard lifted Ford beneath one arm while Rodney took the other; they hefted him up and moved as quickly as they could towards the jumper. There was an explosion set to go off soon, they had no time to spare to treat their fallen comrade.

With some maneuvering around the press of the crowded rear compartment, they carefully put Ford down on the floor in the narrow space near the front of the jumper. Sheppard leapt to the pilot’s seat, vacated gratefully by Conroy. 

Teyla and Halling leaned over Ford. When Sheppard glanced back over his shoulder, Halling was gently closing Ford’s eyes. He met Sheppard’s questioning look and sadly shook his head. “There is nothing to be done. He is with the Ancestors now.” The Athosians began to keen lightly and pray.

Forcing his distress aside, for he had to get the living to safety, Sheppard maneuvered the puddlejumper up and around. “The doors are closed.” McKay said, close to Sheppard’s ear as he leaned over the pilot’s seat to see through the front window. Piloting the little Ancient ship out of the hive was fairly easy; doing so with an excited astrophysicist breathing down your neck was not. “How are we gonna get through, Sheppard?”

“Take it easy, McKay, I’m on it.” Sheppard closed his eyes and very politely asked the puddlejumper to fire two nice little drones at the doors of the hold. When she did, and the doors exploded in a satisfying splash of color, Sheppard patted the dashboard sweetly and thanked her, in his mind of course, he wouldn’t want the others to think he was nuts.  
“Nice shooting!” McKay pounded on his shoulder. We might just make it out of here.”

“Thanks, McKay. Since you’re hovering there, you wanna get ready to dial the Gate?” McKay grunted in assent and held his hand over the crystals. “Thanks for the help back there; you did real good with the C-4, and the life signs detector.”

“You didn’t do so bad yourself. A little unexpected, actually, you’ve got some backbone for a keri.” It was a backhanded compliment; John decided to take it as such, since McKay was notorious around SGO for having little to no tact and was not in the habit of handing out compliments.

The hive ship exploded just as they reached the Gate. As John looked over at the cooling corpse of Aedin Ford, and thought about the missing Overseer of the Atlantis Expedition, he felt it a hollow victory.

~*~

 

Two days later, Sheppard stood at the railing overlooking the vast ocean. Weir had asked him a question, and he was still pondering his answer. The balcony doors opened and he heard footsteps approaching. He had to turn to look because as yet, the only footfalls he could identify by sound alone were Elizabeth’s and Lorne’s. But he’d known each of them for many years, everyone else here was a stranger.

“Drink?” McKay held up a bottle of vodka and waggled it back and forth. “I know I can use it.

“Yeah, me too, buddy. Pass it over.” He took the bottle, opened it and took a swig. It was good stuff, not cheap, and there was no burn as it went down.

They stood in silence for a while, passing the bottle occasionally, leaning on the railing looking out to sea. “Hell of a way to die,” McKay said finally, shivering at the memory of Ford’s desiccated body.

“Yeah. You know, I can’t imagine how I’d live with myself if I had been the one to make that kill shot, if I had taken out that Wraith Queen and woken them all.”

After a longer silence, McKay asked, “What do you think happened to Sumner?”

“We’ll never know. Probably died fighting, he was that sort.”

“Do you think the Wraith learned about Earth from him?”

Sheppard shuddered this time. “Oh, God, I hope not. We’ve got enough aliens trying to take over the planet; we do not need punk rock vampires added to the mix.” He took another deep drink. 

“I brought my keri into this. I think that might have been a mistake. I should have left her home,” McKay said as he accepted the bottle back from Sheppard. “I didn’t think it would be this dangerous.”

“None of us did.”

“You don’t have a panor’eten. Did you ever?” 

It was odd for a keri of Sheppard’s age to be unbonded, he expected the question from most people at one point or another when they tried to get to know him. He was going to be working with McKay, he seemed a pretty all right guy under all his bluster, he actually liked the guy, so John allowed him the personal question.

“Nope. Never have.” In his mind Sheppard added, ‘never will.’

“Huh.” Rodney replied noncommittally and drank again.

John turned his back on the sea and leaned against the balcony rail, tilting his head back to look up at the buildings. “Weir asked me to officially take command of the Expedition, take Sumner’s spot. She claims I have the administrative background to go with my rank, she doesn’t want to try to lead the military.”

“Will they follow a keri? The marines and seals, I mean? Sure, your Air Services branch people will follow you without question, they’re a little single mindedly loyal like that, but the other grunts? There aren’t any other keri in command of any SGO base I know of.”

Sheppard shook his head. “No. Me either. There have been instances of field promotions and temporary emergency situations, which is how Weir is justifying this, but I‘ve never heard of it happening either. I guess we would have to see if they’ll take orders from me.”

The scientist looked at him thoughtfully, considering. “You should do it. I saw you out there; you kept your head, made good decisions. You’re a hell of a shot with that gun.” He waved at the Glock riding low in the holster at Sheppard’s hip. The Athosians seem to like you, you handled the whole diplomatic who-ha with them better than Sumner would have. Not to speak ill of the dead, but he wasn’t a diplomat. I think you’ll do a good job.”

“Why thanks, Rodney,” Sheppard flashed a smile at him. 

Rodney tapped the bottle dangling from Sheppard’s hand. “You play chess? As nice as this is, as the conversation has been, I can’t drink much more, I need my head clear.” 

“As a matter of fact, I do. There’s a set in the mess hall, shall we?”

Those who witnessed the downfall of Rodney McKay that night, eight games to five declared it a glorious victory. 

McKay claimed ever after that it had been the vodka.

 

The Beginning


End file.
